Generally speaking, determining an item's dimensions is often necessary as part of a logistics process in commerce (e.g., shipping, storage, etc.). Physically measuring objects, however, is time consuming and may not result in accurate measurements. For example, in addition to human error, measurement errors may result when measuring irregularly shaped objects or when combining multiple objects into a single measurement. As a result, dimensioning systems have been developed to automate, or assist with, this measurement.
A dimensioning system typically senses an object's shape/size in three-dimensions (3D) and then uses this 3D information to compute an estimate of an object's dimensions (e.g., volume, area, length, width, height, etc.). In addition, for irregular objects (or multiple objects), the dimensioning system may compute the dimensions of a minimum bounding box (MVBB) that contains the object (or objects).
The dimensioning system may sense an object by projecting a light pattern (i.e., pattern) into a field-of-view. Objects within the field-of-view will distort the appearance of the light pattern. The dimensioning system can capture an image of the reflected light-pattern and analyze the pattern distortions in the captured image to compute the 3D data necessary for dimensioning.
Many dimensioners use optical means of determining the length, width, and height of an object which is usually a cuboid (e.g. a “normal” box where the opposite sides are parallel and perpendicular to the adjacent sides). Some packages, however, are irregular and consequently may not be able to obtain a single set of dimensions, particularly if one of the angles is obtuse (i.e. greater than 90 degrees). Some systems solve the problem by utilizing multiple sensors but this is expensive and the multiple sensors limit the size of objects that can be measured. Another solution is to program a device always to take measurements of two or more points of view but this it time consuming for normal boxes or cuboids.
Therefore, a need exists for a single sensor dimensioner with automatic means of detecting when multiple views are needed and to automatically switch modes accordingly.